CEMENTED CARBIDE INSERT,CNC LATHE TOOL,FACTORY IN CHINA

Software Helps Race Team Mechanics Become CNC Programmer Machinists

Racecar drivers are programmed for speed. So, it shouldn’t be any wonder that driver Conrad “Connie” Kalitta would push for his company, Kalitta Motorsports of Ypsilanti, Michigan, to begin making some of its own racing components instead of waiting the lengthy lead times often associated with outsourcing. By selecting GibbsCAM software from Gibbs and Associates (Moorpark, California), the company was able to better control both time and cost for making racing components.

Although Kalitta Motorsports was founded in 1959, it wasn’t until about eight years ago that it seriously began to consider making some of its own components in-house. It already had a Bridgeport and a manual lathe for making simpler components, but it purchased most of its wear parts. Mr. Kalitta’s goal for making components in-house was to reduce component costs, gain control over quality and eliminate lengthy lead times. Ideally, the company would also gain the flexibility to make custom components without the expense of outsourcing prototypes and modifications. If successful, it would start making components for other teams as well.

At that time, Kalitta Motorsports didn’t have a CNC machinist, CNC programming software or a CNC programmer, so its two machines were primarily used by Scott Finnis, a cylinder head mechanic who traveled with Doug Kalitta’s racing team from 1993 to 2006. Mr. Finnis learned to use the machines off-season, without any training.

In 2006, the company acquired a three-axis Fadal 6030 CNC for Mr. Finnis to program and operate, even though he had never used a computer or CNC. In preparation, he purchased a PC to learn computer basics at home. Because Mr. Finnis lacked CNC experience, the shop needed CNC programming software that would be easy to learn and use, but would allow easy migration into higher levels of CNC machining that the shop might require later. Kalitta selected the basic GibbsCAM package, which enables creating wireframe geometry.

Mr. Finnis describes the learning experience as very straightforward. “It was really easy and everything just made sense,” he says. “After a two-day training session with the GibbsCAM reseller, I started learning the CNC. Until then I had never used a CNC, so I broke a few tools, but I got up to speed quickly.”

Mr. Finnis began using GibbsCAM to design and program parts and tooling. He quit traveling from race to race so that he could focus on CNC programming and machining. That same year, another mechanic, Dave Griffiths, also stopped traveling with the crew to do manual machining work in the shop while he continued porting cylinder heads.

In 2008, Kalitta acquired a Haas SL-20 lathe followed by a Haas VF-4. By 2012, Kalitta Motorsports had grown to two Top Fuel dragster and two Funny Car racing teams in addition to its stable of National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) cars.

The 10,000-hp engines of the dragsters and funny cars often exceed 320 mph in the 1,000-foot run and can go through an unpredictable quantity of parts in a weekend during the possible eight rounds of racing. Among various potential problems, a plugged fuel nozzle, a failing valve or an electrical problem can ruin a weekend with burned pistons and broken rods. To be prepared and allow for excessive damage at each race, each car’s traveling team maintains a stock of parts that includes eight to 10 assembled engines, 10 sets of cylinder heads, five blowers, five flywheels and an assortment of other parts. The crew must tear down and rebuild the engine in less than an hour between runs, so spares have to be ready.

Racecar wear and tear was keeping the two machinists busy full time with Mr. Finnis using GibbsCAM and CNC mills, and Mr. Griffiths manually programming the CNC lathe. By 2013, the shop was achieving a degree of self-sufficiency by machining primarily prismatic and cylindrical parts, and making parts for its chassis manufacturer.Cut Off Inserts

The CNCs and GibbsCAM enabled the men to make high-wear blower-rotor-bearing end frames in-house, reduce component cost by 84 percent from the purchase price and sell them to other teams. However, Mr. Kalitta wanted to increase manufacturing capability to make some of the more complex parts in-house. To facilitate this, the shop acquired SolidWorks software to design and model parts, and it added a fourth axis (rotary table) to the Fadal CNC.

In preparation, the shop upgraded its GibbsCAM software with the Solids Machining option, which opens SolidWorks models for machining directly. The Solids Machining option also enables modeling and modifying of solids to add or subtract features to make models machinable or produce more efficient programs.

In addition to bringing more manufacturing in-house, another of PVD Coated Insert Kalitta Motorsports’ goals was to reduce component weight. The first experimental parts Mr. Finnis tackled were two aluminum fuel distribution blocks that were being machined as “blocky” prismatic parts hollowed with multiple threaded holes. New parts were modeled with rounded curving exteriors to minimize wall thickness and eliminate squared edges that added bulk. They were then machined from magnesium, reducing the weight by 35 percent.

“These were the first parts I made with GibbsCAM Solids Machining,” Mr. Finnis says. “They were my 3D machining learning process. I modeled one in GibbsCAM Solids and the designer modeled the Y block in SolidWorks. I then programmed them in GibbsCAM using GibbsCAM Cut Part Rendering to check the toolpath. I saw a couple of spots that showed red tool marks, and I fixed those. Otherwise, I had no problems.”

Cut Part Rendering, the GibbsCAM toolpath verification utility, shows the surface finish left by cutting tools, displaying red whenever the tool gouges or makes undesirable cuts in the workpiece. Mr. Finnis says he uses it to verify all 3D machining. For the smaller of the two parts (2.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 inches), he used five setups to machine all the holes, including the smaller pipe plugs and smaller edge radii.

“This is a fairly complicated part, but we easily made it with GibbsCAM,” he says. “I was able to understand everything in the new software, and we got the job done in a reasonable amount of time. It was nice to be able to make parts that I once wished I could make.”

The second part, a Y block, is more complex and larger (4.5 by 2.5 by 1.5 inches), but programming and machining went as smoothly as the first. The parts are not wear parts, so Mr. Finnis made only one set for one team to test. When the other teams saw the parts, they wanted them. What was an experimental project turned into a rush job.

When GibbsCAM Solids entered the shop, some of the parts previously modeled in wireframe were remodeled as solids. That alone made a considerable difference in machining time, resulting from the efficiency of the resultant CNC programs. Various other features of the new software also help Mr. Finnis simplify programming and reduce machining time. One of these is the GibbsCAM Profiler, which extracts cross sections anywhere along the part model. When not machining directly, Mr. Finnis extracts machinable geometry for external features, holes and pockets, eliminating the need to create geometry.

Another feature he uses frequently is GibbsCAM VoluMill for Solids. “That’s really nice for roughing out parts, easily saving us 15 minutes on two-hour jobs,” he says. “We make a lot of blower-bearing end frames, and the time savings really mount up.”

Mr. Griffiths, efficient in manually programming the Haas SL-20, felt no urgency in learning GibbsCAM. Instead, he has learned to use SolidWorks to model parts, as Mr. Finnis now has. However, as his cylindrical parts become more complex or need to use CNC mills, he too is acclimating to GibbsCAM.

“There are no stumbling blocks from modeling in SolidWorks, transferring models to GibbsCAM and creating toolpaths,” he says. “GibbsCAM is good, easy, intuitive and reliable. It’s the first CAM software I used. It was easy and fast to pick up, and I was working with solid models the first week I used it.”

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Optimized Tool Paths Save Time, Boost Profits

Not all CAM systems are created equal. One differentiating factor is the efficiency of the toolpath strategies incorporated in the program. If these strategies are limited, operations on the machine might run at less than optimal speed.

That was the case at Delta Pattern, a South Gate, California-based manufacturer of stamping dies, foundry patterns and other tooling, primarily for the aerospace industry. To improve efficiency, the company switched to a CAM package that optimizes roughing tool paths based on the results of previous machining cycles. According to the company, this and other features of DP Technology’s Esprit software have reduced cycle time on typical parts by 25 percent and programming time by 33 percent. As a result, profits have increased by approximately 30 percent.

Stamping dies produced at Delta Pattern are used to create parts such as aircraft doors and housings from aluminum, titanium and other materials. Sizes typically range from 10 by 20 inches to 3 by 4 feet, and most incorporate complex 3D surfaces. Depending on its complexity, machining time for a typical stamping die could range from 4 hours to 3 days. Typically, the company receives either an IGES file or a series of 2D drawings in the form of Mylar prints to define part geometry. Most dies and patterns are produced on a Johnford 2100H or a Haas VF4 machining center.

The company’s previous software worked well on parts composed primarily of 2D and 2.5D features, but it was less efficient for those involving the complex curves common at Delta Pattern. CNC programmer Abel Germán Olivieri says he was introduced to Esprit Mold at developer DP Technology’s 2006 World Conference, an annual user event. There, he learned that the CAM software package is designed specifically for companies like Delta that produce molds, dies, patterns, prototypes and other parts with complex 3D surfaces. "The key advantage of the software is that it offers machining strategies that minimize the amount of time needed to remove the large amounts of material required in this type of machining," he says.

Delta programmers begin by loading part geometry into the software. Next, they define the speeds, feeds, diameters, lengths, holder types and other such information for the desired set of roughing tools. The software automatically generates roughing tool paths based on this data. Programmers can choose to generate tool paths from outside-in or from inside-out, and a range of approach and retract positions are available.

Roughing proceeds by removing material from the workpiece in successive layers. The first paths use a relatively large cutter to remove as much material as possible. Then, to bring the workpiece closer to final geometry, progressively smaller tools machine areas of the model that were inaccessible to the initial cutter. For example, Mr. Olivieri says a typical milling operation might begin with a 2-inch-diameter bullnose end mill before moving successively to 3/4-inch, 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch square end mills.

To maximize material removal, Esprit determines how much stock each cutter can safely machine without gouging the part. Maintaining the same cutting depth to remove a uniform amount of material across each layer of the workpiece keeps tool loads constant and ensures efficient high speed cutting, the developer says. Additionally, the software continually monitors the in-process stock model via stock automation capability to track the location of remaining material at all times, even when machining undercut areas.

Mr. Olivieri says a key advantage of Esprit is that it automatically adjusts these roughing tool paths based on the results of previous machining cycles. In addition to reducing cycle time, this helps avoid air cutting while minimizing advance and retract movements. Other toolpath optimization capabilities include rounding sharp angles, smoothing stepovers and using trochoidal feed to enable climb milling in virtually any situation and to keep feed rates and chip loads constant.

The software’s high speed, Z-level finishing cycles, for which the shop typically employs ballnose end mills, are also characterized by smooth stepovers and the rounding of sharp edges for high speed cutting. Other features of these cycles include smooth, circular approach movements and the use of passes that vary in height to create a constant scallop height, contributing to quality surface finishes. The software also offers a Z-level zigzag strategy to improve cycle time and surface quality when machining vertical walls. In addition to rounding internal sharp edges for high speed cutting, this finishing cycle incorporates circular interpolation whenever possible to improve efficiency.

Delta programmers also benefit from Esprit’s feature-based capabilities, which enable them access the full functionality of solid models. The software automatically identifies part features and determines a logical order for machining operations. Programmers maintain the flexibility to change that order by simply dragging and dropping a feature to a different position on the sequence. This is especially useful if, for example, the software’s simulation capability reveals problems or opportunities for improvement. In that case, programmers can easily change or reorder operations to prevent crashes or reduce cycle time.

Also, programmers can create a knowledge base of optimized machining operations, each of which includes particular tools, speeds, feeds, cutting depths and other such parameters. The software automatically applies these operations when it encounters similar workpiece Carbide Drilling Tools features. In addition to saving programming and cycle time for parts incorporating similar geometry, this ensures that the program takes full advantage of the shop’s machines, cutting tools and other equipment.

Support provided by DP Technology has been critical to the company’s ability to use the software successfully, Mr. Olivieri says. At first, the developer worked closely with Delta to identify its programming needs and provided on-site training. The two companies continue to communicate frequently via phone and e-mail, and Mr. Olivieri notes that technical support staff is responsive and willing to take the time to help the shop work through any problems. The developer also provided postprocessors for Delta’s machines, eliminating the need to edit G code.

"A typical stamping die that might have taken Cut Off Inserts 12 hours to program in the past can now be programmed in only 8 hours," Mr. Olivieri concludes, noting that optimized re-machining and other software features have significantly reduced machining time as well. "These time savings provide substantial cost savings—they have helped to improve our profitability by 30 percent."

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Extreme Tool Setting

For its 26 machining centers alone, PHD's Huntington, Indiana manufacturing facility has 4,875 tools in its active library. And "active" is the operative word. The rate at which tools are swapped in and out of machining centers is increasing. Last year, the plant did 63,717 tool setups. This year, it will do more than 79,000. No matter how you look at it, this plant uses a lot of tools.

Yet just one tool presetter measures all of the relevant data for all of the tool setups for these 26 machines. The software associated with the presetter manages lathe tooling as well. Two employees, one for machining centers and one for lathes, serve as the gatekeepers who maintain the integrity of this information. In short, while the plant uses a lot of tooling, it has a tightly controlled and centralized system for keeping that tooling in order.

PHD started building this system about a decade ago. At that time, it wasn't clear just how important the system would become. The company's business is changing. This maker of automation components—including cylinders, grippers, slides and rotary actuators—is seeing lot sizes and leadtimes shrink, while the number of product designs proliferates. In greater numbers, customers are asking for just-in-time service at the same time that they ask for custom products in place of catalog items. These changes are good, because PHD feels particularly capable of meeting these demands. However, the response to the demands is effectively transforming the Huntington production plant, along with a sister plant in Fort Wayne, into something more like a job shop.

However, the difficulty is that PHD lacks many of a job shop's options. In a job shop, a smaller number of machining centers might have substantial tool capacity in each machine. The shop might equip these machines with a standard complement of general-purpose tools that could be applied to almost any job coming in the door. In other words, a job shop wouldn't have to swap out tools so much.

PHD can't afford these kinds of concessions. It can't afford to devote that much floorspace to tool magazines, and it can't afford to hold that much tool inventory in every machine. Nor can it afford the cycle-time compromises that come from using general-purpose tooling instead of tools specifically suited to specific details of the part. What this plant needs is a system controlled and responsive enough to General Turning Inserts handle a large volume and variety of tooling. The plant had the foresight to begin putting such a system in place in 1994.

Over the years, the system has reduced human error, reduced the plant's overall scrap rate and improved the change-over time between jobs. Today, this system is facing a challenge, but it's not a challenge related to effectiveness. The challenge has more to do with physical limits. Part of the system's elegance lies in the fact that one presetter can serve so many machines, but the plant is now running this presetter around the clock. At 79,000 tool setups, the plant is pushing the upper limit of how many tools per year a presetter can measure.

The first presetter that the plant installed, like the plant's current model, came from Zoller, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Even though the model PHD was using in 1994 was quite possibly the most sophisticated CVD Coated Insert presetter installed in the United States at the time, the technology has improved significantly since then. The plant still has this first model sitting in a corner, because the plant can't find a buyer for it. The current model, purchased 4 years ago, beats it handily in terms of both precision and ease of use.

At least a year went by before presetting was integrated into the plant's process in something like the way it is today. The presetter itself is only part of a package that also includes tool management software—a vital element for using the presetter well. Tooling technicians at this plant used that first year to populate this software with the shop's preferred tools. They assigned tool names and ID numbers, associated toolholders with the tools, and input nominal dimensions and cutting parameters for the plant's various workpiece materials. All of this information had to be entered one tool at a time, in spare moments as PHD's production continued. Only after a year was there enough information in the system that a sizeable proportion of the plant's tools could be called up from memory instead of being entered for the first time. The tool crib personnel called up tools in this way, but just as importantly, so did the programmers. Their ability to select from a common reserve of tooling saved them time and guesswork, and it made the process more consistent by ensuring that standard tools were used in standard ways. At about this same time, the presetter itself was connected to the shopfloor network.

There was resistance from the shop floor then, and understandably so. Operators had long been accustomed to keying in their own tool offsets, and in many cases, even measuring their own tools. Now they were being asked to hit "cycle start" on programs using tool data they had never even touched.

But part of the problem had been the need for human beings to "touch" the tool data. Miskeying information was a frequent source of error. Because of this and other error sources, the plant's scrap rate used to stand at 7 percent. Tooling and process engineering manager Pat Young says networked presetting was adopted as just one component of a plant-wide effort to address such sources of error. This effort also included rethinking processes, improving fixturing and enhancing training—a team effort, Mr. Young stresses. Thanks to these measures, the scrap rate is now down to 1.5 percent.

The presetter today is the control point for initiating every new machining job. The plant's objective is that an operator should never have to leave the machine to get tools or tool-related information. Tool/toolholder assemblies that are set up and measured in the tool crib are sent to the appropriate machine tool on a cart, arriving there well before the job is run. The tool sheet arriving with this cart tells the operator which pocket in the tool magazine should receive each tool. The operator then obtains the tool offsets by downloading them directly to the CNC across the shopfloor network.

Connecting the presetter to a network, and not to any machine or cluster of machines, was the choice that allowed this presetter to serve the entire shop floor. Mr. Young says various safeguards have been necessary to make this approach to using the presetter more reliable. One example is the use of a software program to automatically clear the system of any tool data more than 2 weeks old. Mr. Young says experience has been the best teacher for revealing where safeguards such as this one are needed.

The tool library has to be safeguarded, too. This database of tools, large though it now is, provides programmers with the range of tools they have available, as wells as the machining parameters that have been demonstrated to be effective with these tools. The integrity of this library contributes directly to the effectiveness of PHD's process. For that reason, restricted access is another important element of the system. A gatekeeper is needed to guard the information.

Or more specifically, two gatekeepers are needed—one for machining centers and one for lathes. Darrin Colbart and Jim Wilson are the tooling technicians who not only monitor the plant's tooling inventory, but also enter and modify the tool data in this library. If a programmer wants to use a tool that doesn't exist in the system, then he comes to one of these men to make the request.

Mr. Wilson is the lathe guy. The fact that he uses this system might seem surprising, because the lathe tooling has no use for the presetter. For stationary tools, the plant uses quick-change tooling from both Kennametal and Sandvik Coromant to ensure repeatable tool location when tools are changed. For live tools, each lathe uses a probe to measure tool length. But despite the fact that the presetter isn't needed, the software accompanying the presetter is still valuable for managing the tooling.

For just the lathes alone, the plant uses a lot of tools. Ten turning centers draw on 837 different turning tools. In addition, any particular turning machine uses a lot of tooling at one time. When PHD buys a turning center, the standard complement of tool turret positions is just a starting point for the company. This plant looks carefully at each machine's potential use to decide just how many live tools and how many stationary tools it needs. It buys additional live tool heads and multiposition toolholder accessories not only to achieve the right mix of fixed versus live tooling, but also to increase the number of tool positions available. Most of these accessories have come from Euro-Technics (Huntley, Illinois), while accessories for the larger lathes come from Exsys (San Antonio, Florida). On one of its turning machines, the plant adapted the lathe to have 45 tool positions. Thus the tooling cart that arrives at a lathe might be just as stocked with tooling as the one that arrives at a machining center—and the tool sheet generated by the software is just as useful for instructing the operator in how to load these tools.

The cutting tool is the element of any machining process that introduces the most potential for variability. One machine can run many different jobs, and the same workholding can hold many parts, but the required mix of cutting tools is almost certain to be different from job to job. Add to this the variation that might come from different programmers favoring different tools and choosing different parameters. For PHD, the value of presetting is not just to be found in measuring tools—though this is vital—but also to be found in the role that presetting plays to help take control of the tool-related process variation.

"It really is the hub of our process," Mr. Colbart says.

A clue as to how well tool setting has now been integrated into the plant can be seen in the operators' level of acceptance. Many operators who work with the system now were also operators before presetting. (Average seniority at the plant is 14 years.) Any resistance on their part to using tool offsets transferred across a network was overcome long ago. Mr. Young says the resistance now comes on those rare occasions when the system happens to be off-line.

"It used to be that no one trusted offsets they didn't enter themselves," he says. Now, personnel are more vocal when they have to hand-key information.

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Dormer Pramet Offers Cutting Tools for Maintenance, Repair Applications

Dormer Pramet offers a Turning Carbide Inserts range drills to cover most ferrous, maintenance and repair (MRO) applications on portable drilling equipment and drill presses. General Carbide Inserts purpose machine and portable drilling tools include the HSS R10 series for right hand drilling and HSS L10 series for left hand drilling. Also included are the carbide DC series of center drills. There is a specific selection for sheet metal drilling and spot weld drilling.

The MRO drills are available in jobber length (301JD), heavy-duty jobber length (331HD, 332HD and 333HD), mechanics length with “tri-flat” shanks (321MD), stub length (331SM, 332SM) and reduced-shank (341SD, 342SD). Various surface treatments cover the range of MRO operating conditions. The program contains conventional 118-degree point geometries as well as 135-degree self-centering split points for more challenging applications. Sets within each style are available in a rust-resistant, water- and shatter-proof case.

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3D Animation Sheds Light On Tool Operation

?E-Z Burr Tool Company's newly launched Web site shows manufacturers exactly how the company's tools work by utilizing 3D animation. The animations can become transparent to allow users to view tools from the inside, gaining a comprehensive understanding about how products such as the company's carbide tool and BurrFree drill operate. Strive Creative, a creative services company in Plymouth, Michigan, is Hitachi Inserts the mastermind behind the new site. With 6mm Shank Cutting Burr Flash 3D animation, the company designed the site to facilitate the decision-making process for manufacturers that are interested in buying deburring and chamfering tools. For more information from E-Z Burr Tool Company, visit the company's MMSOnline Showroom. For more information about cutting tool applications, systems and products, visit MMSOnline's Cutting Tools Zone.

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